A zip tie is frequently used by people in their daily life to bundle or organize different objects, such as electrical wires, cables or other miscellaneous items, and has a wide variety of other applications.
Please refer to FIG. 1A that is a perspective view of a first conventional zip tie consisting of a retaining head 10 and a long strip of strap 11. The retaining head 10 has a slot 101 with a pawl 103. The strap 11 is formed on one surface with a plurality of axially spaced teeth 112 for engaging with the pawl 103. To use the zip tie, simply extend the strap 11 around the objects to be bundled or organized before inserting a tail end of the strap 11 into the slot 101 of the retaining head 10, and then pull the strap 11 through the slot 101 to tighten the strap 11 against the bundled objects. At this point, the pawl 103 in the slot 101 of the retaining head 10 finally immovably engages with one of the teeth 112 on the strap 11 to achieve the purpose of bundling the objects.
While the above-described conventional zip tie can be used to bundle objects quickly, it has some disadvantages in use. That is, once the strap 11 has been pulled through the slot 101 to tighten against the bundled objects, the pawl 103 is irreversibly engaged with one of the teeth 112. To loosen the strap 11 from the bundled objects, a cutting device must be used to cut open the looped strap 11, rendering the zip tie no longer usable. Thus, the conventional zip tie shown in FIG. 1A tends to cause resource wastage and increased material cost, and is therefore not environmentally friendly.
In addition, since the conventional zip tie shown in FIG. 1A is not automatically or freely adjustable in tightness, there is a safety risk in using such zip tie. For example, there are times a user carelessly gets his or her finger pinched in the objects bundled with the zip tie, which could not be loosened or released from the bundled objects immediately. When a knife is used to cut open the strap 11 of the zip tie, it is very possible the user's finger is undesirably injured by the knife. In some worse conditions, a user, particularly a child, uses or plays the zip tie in an incorrect manner and carelessly binds it around the user's body part, such as the neck or a finger, which might become necrotized to even cause death of the user if the zip tie is not timely loosened.
To overcome the above-mentioned disadvantages of the first conventional zip tie in use, another releasable zip tie, as shown in FIGS. 1B and 1C, has been developed. The releasable zip tie includes a retaining head 10 with a slot 101, a strap 11, and a release member 13. The release member 13 includes a pawl end 131 and a push end 132 extended from and located opposite to the pawl end 131. The pawl end 131 is located in the slot 101 and can be released from the slot 101 by pushing the push end 132. The strap 11 is formed on one surface with a plurality of axially spaced teeth 112 for engaging with the pawl end 131. To use the zip tie, simply extend the strap 11 around the objects to be bundled or organized, such as electric wires, cables and other miscellaneous items, before inserting a tail end of the strap 11 into the slot 101 of the retaining head 10, and then pull the strap 11 through the slot 101 to tighten the strap 11 against the bundled objects. At this point, the pawl end 131 of the release member 13 is located in the slot 101 of the retaining head 10 and finally immovably engages with one of the teeth 112 on the strap 11 to achieve the purpose of bundling the objects. When it is desired to loosen the strap 11 from the bundled objects, a user may push the push end 132 with a fingernail or a tool tip to move the pawl end 131 away from the engaged tooth 112 and then backward pull the strap 11 out of the slot 101 to achieve the purpose of releasing the bundled objects.
While the above-described releasable zip tie as shown in FIGS. 1B and 1C serves to releasably bind a bundle of objects, the release member 13 thereof is not so convenient to operate or safe for use because the user has to continuously push his or her fingernail or the tool tip against the considerably small push end 132 before the strap 11 can be completely removed from the slot 101. The user would get a sore hand from pushing against the push end 132 over an extended time period. In addition, the provision of the release member 13 also increases the manufacturing cost of the zip tie.
Another disadvantage of the conventional zip ties is that the strap 11 is not elastically stretchable and accordingly, not suitable for firmly binding or bundling soft objects, such as hair, packaging bags, carry bags, and many other soft articles with irregular shapes. The non-elastic zip tie can only be loosely wound around the above-mentioned soft articles without tightly holding them in place. Thus, the conventional zip ties are suitable only for bundling rigid articles, such as wires, cables and the like.
In brief, the conventional zip ties have the following disadvantages: (1) inconvenient to operate; (2) not allowing the user to freely adjust the tightness of the zip tie against the bundled objects; (3) not reusable; (4) causing cost wastage; and (5) not safe for use.
It is therefore tried by the inventor to develop an improved elastic zip tie to overcome the drawbacks of the conventional zip ties.